My Brave Little Fish

I finally got around to signing Olivia up for swim classes at Clover Park High School (which is actually my rival high school, but I'm so over that!). She has been asking me forever when she was going to get to take swimming lessons and was super excited to start. She wasn't afraid at all to jump into the water and learn the basics, but the minute her teacher asked her to put her face underwater her eyes widened and she shook her head. It was funny to see how quickly she got scared considering everything else she had done in class already. We talked about putting her face underwater at home and I even suggested she try in the bath tub but she refused. Finally on her third class, Adam took her and when they came home she said "I put my face underwater for 5 seconds!" So I had to see for myself at the next class. She does it all on her own now! She is learning the different strokes (it's a good thing we didn't name her Grace, if you get my drift... she is so spastic about it!) and learning how to float on her back. She even jumped in the big deep pool by herself with a life vest on, and tomorrow for her last class she is going to jump off the diving board. We'll see if that one actually happens!

We're working on keeping her legs straight when she kicks... and notice that her teacher is holding her right now...

But not right here! She's swimming on her own with the kick board. And making a huge splash.

I know it's a little blurry (I really should get a new camera... hint hint!) but she's so cute sitting on the side of the pool. She loves her class and I love that she loves her class.

Elder Perry visits!

Our stake had the opportunity to have Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles come and speak to us. He was here for an area leadership conference for about 11 stakes in our area, so Adam and my dad got to go to the Friday night meeting for ward mission leaders (Adam) and stake presidencies (my dad). Adam even got to shake Elder Perry's hand. Then on Sunday Elder Perry chose our stake to come to for Sacrament Meeting. We held a special stake conference, and Celeste, Olivia and I got to the stake center at 7am to save seats for the 10am meeting. It was crazy early but we were the first people there. We felt like those crazy fans who wait all night to see their favorite star! Anyway, the meeting was amazing and Elder Perry was really funny. Adam, my mom and I and the kids waited about 45 minutes in line after the meeting to meet him too. He was super friendly and so patient to shake hands with so many people. We even got a picture with him, which I'm not sure is totally okay to take pictures in the chapel, but we did anyway! Shh... don't tell!

Elder Perry shook each of my kids hands, and when he saw Madelynn he said "Now isn't she a bright little penny!" Cute, huh?

Family Pictures (aka Picture Overload!)

We finally got some family pictures done. We went to JC Penney, which wasn't my first choice, but I don't know any photographers out here (so if you know one in Pierce County, let me know!) so I was forced to go with the indoor, cheesy photographers instead. Although I wasn't totally impressed with some of the pictures, I thought some turned out great. And of course, it's hard to get all three kids to cooperate for a photo shoot, so one of them is always not smiling or doing something weird, but I thought some of them turned out okay considering all that! Sorry for the massive amount of pictures. I didn't buy most of these so I wanted to document them somehow.

Of course Madelynn is trying to crawl away. I liked it better when she wasn't so mobile.

Okay, I'm done. I promise!

Halloween Festivities

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. It's always so much more fun to celebrate holidays when the kids actually understand what's going on, even if they don't really appreciate all the work behind it! Jack and Olivia talked all week about painting their pumpkins and going trick or treating. Jack changed his mind at least three times about what he wanted to be for Halloween. First it was Spiderman, then a clown, and finally a pirate. Olivia didn't really have an opinion about what she wanted to be for Halloween, as long as she was "pretty", and Madelynn was Piglet, which was Olivia's costume when she was Madelynn's age.

We started off our festivities by going to the Lakewood Fire Department pumpkin patch. It was a little lame, but everything was free, including the pumpkins. The kids had fun playing a dumb fishing game and jumping in the bouncy house. Afterwards we picked out a pumpkin for each kid. Both Jack and Olivia were super picky about their pumpkins. I'm not sure what Jack was looking for, but Olivia wanted a small pumpkin that she could carry by herself.

Next year we are finding a better pumpkin patch! I know there are some around here, I just didn't really feel like driving all over the place trying to find one that would be as good as Patterson Farm in Ohio (so sad!).

This was the best picture I could get of them all together. At least 2 of the 3 are smiling!

We finally got around to painting our pumpkins too. My kids love to paint their pumpkins, not carve them. I'm sure if we gave them the option, they would carve them, but I think painting is a little safer considering how accident-prone my family is! Don't you love the concentration on their faces?

Sorry for the PG picture! We were trying to limit the mess.

This is why we took off his shirt... and bought non-toxic, washable paint!

I got these paint brushes that already had the paint inside because they claimed "No Mess!" Obviously these people have never met my kids (or any kid 5 and under!)

The next evening we had Celeste and Bryan and their kids over to make caramel apples. It was a lot of fun and really sticky! The kids loved choosing their own toppings and eating it, although Olivia had hers cut up so it wasn't so messy. Jack just went for it. Of course.

On Halloween, we went to our ward's Halloween party. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast playing all the games and winning prizes. They refused to go into the "haunted house" though, which didn't surprise me. They loved pumpkin bowling, pumpkin toss, face painting, bingo, pumpkin walk, etc. After we played all the games we ate hot dogs, chips and soda in the gym. Well, Adam and Olivia and I ate. Jack ran around with his pirate sword! He actually did really well with the sword and didn't hit anyone (don't worry- he made up for it by hitting every one at home the next day). We went outside to the other ward's trunk or treat to say hi to Nana and Papa and the Pearsons. Olivia was slightly scared of Rix's costume (vampire) but I thought that Bryce and Cole and Rix all looked amazing. My mother brought her dog, Missy, and my kids were super excited to show off their costumes. Afterwards we went over to our own ward's trunk or treat. At that point, Madelynn was just ready for bed and Jack and Olivia were cold. We only made it around the trunk or treat once before they told me they were ready to go home. Actually, Jack was done about half way through, but he persevered in the name of CANDY! Well, on the to the pictures!

Aren't they cute?! Madelynn was super cute in her Piglet costume and she liked that she could still crawl in it. Jack actually didn't smudge his "scar" but I'm not sure he knew it was there either. Olivia LOVED having her hair in an updo and wanted to keep it in for church the next day (we didn't since she had a bath that night, but insisted that I do her hair like that for school or church sometime). I didn't actually get any pictures of the kids while they were getting candy. It was way too cold and dark so my camera wouldn't have taken any great pictures anyway! Next year I will get a lot more pictures and we will go around the neighborhood. And next year I will think more about the weather! Olivia was so cold so she had to cover up her costume with a big coat. We had a lot of fun though!